Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez

Fernando Lugo Méndez is the president of Paraguay, the first president in 61 years who was not the candidate of the Colorado party. He assumed office in August 2008. Prior to this he served as a Roman Catholic priest and bishop, when he was well known in Paraguay as a critic of the Stroessner dictatorship and as an outspoken champion of the rights of the nation's landless poor.